Week 0 Hilary

So the waiting is over, Hilary Term has started. Actually over the break many people have asked the meaning of the term names and a little research has produced the following:

Oxford terms follow the ecclesiastical calendar of the Anglican Christian year.

• Michaelmas (winter term) is named after the feast of Michael which takes place on the 29th September.
• Hilary (spring term) is named after Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c315-367) who was the a bishop in the church from 350.
• Trinity (summer term) is named for Trinity Sunday which is celebrated as the first Sunday after the feast of Pentecost. This is important in the Christian calendar because it signifies when the Holy Spirit first came and the Christian church was "born".

I hope that the above helps to clear things up.
This week has been one of Entrepreneurial Project (EP) preparation and Trinity Term elective presentations. As I have explained before, MBAs are required to prepare and present a business plan for the start up of a company as part of our Hilary Term marks. Oxford is very keen on Entrepreneurialism and so in order to help prepare us for the project, scheduled 2 days of presentations from lectures, Isis (Oxford University company dedicated to spin-outs), and Entrepreneurs.
Stewart Niblock
Stewart used to work for Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the 'Easy empire' entrepreneur, as part of his board. Stewart's main responsibility was in the start up of businesses and he came to give a presentation entitled "Classic Start up: Mistakes and Challenges". During the talk he described his experience at Easy whilst focusing on the formation of Easycar (which started life as Easy Rentacar) and why it didn't really work.
Torsten Reil,
Torsten is an Oxford Alumni who started Naturalmotion with the help of Isis. It is now a company with 45 employees and offices in the UK and the USA. He gave us a talk about how the business had begun in 2000 and the stages that it had been through since then. He also talked about business angel funding as well as venture capital. This was a thoroughly enthralling speech by someone who was living and breathing the entrepreneurial experience.
Trinity Term Elective Presentations
In contrast to last term (where we were only required to choose 2 elective subjects for the following term), this term we have to choose all of the subjects to we wish to take in the next term. This, therefore, involved 2 full days of presentations from lecturers peddling their wares and enticing us to choose their subjects. The list is far to long to include in this blog and to be honest, I have still not fully decided which ones to take. Watch this space and I will post my final choice next week.
In addition to the academic subjects this week, I also managed to attend Daniel Adams 30th Birthday as well as getting out and about in Oxford and the Cotswolds.
Namiko and me at the Oxford Natural History Museum
The Shakespeare Hostel in Stratford-on-Avon
Andrea, Aki, Namiko and me in Stratford-on-Avon
Aki and Namiko in Stow on the Wold
That is it for now, I am sure that I will have a fair amount to post next week... Until then.